Photo Credit
The San Antonio Spurs started out as the Dallas Chaparrals of the original version of the American Basketball Association (ABA). Coached by player/coach Cliff Hagan, the Dallas Chaparrals were one of 11 teams to take the floor in the inaugural season of the upstart ABA. The Chaps’ second season was a bit of a disappointment, as the team finished in fourth place with a mediocre 41 – 37 record. In the playoffs, the Chaparrals quickly fell to the New Orleans Buccaneers(1).
The team suffered from poor attendance and general disinterest in Dallas. In fact, during the 1970 – 71 season, the name “Dallas” was dropped in favor of “Texas” and an attempt was made to make the team a regional one, playing games in Fort Worth, at the Tarrant County Convention Center, as well as Lubbock, at the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum, but this proved a failure and the team returned full-time to Dallas in time for the 1971 – 72 season, splitting their games at Moody Coliseum and Dallas Convention Center Arena(2).
1973 – 1976: Moving to San Antonio
While the Chaparrals had been modestly successful on the court, they were sinking financially by their third season. The financial difficulties were largely caused by the ownership group’s refusal to invest much money on the team. After missing the playoffs for the first time in their existence in the 1972 – 73 season, nearly all the owners wanted out. The team decided to sell the team to a different city, and the Chaparrals had to choose between San Antonio and El Paso(3). A group of 35 San Antonio businessmen – led by Angelo Drossos, John Schaefer, and Red McCombs – worked out a “lend-lease” deal with the Dallas ownership group. Drossos and his group would leas the team for three years with an option to purchase. They were allowed to move the team to San Antonio immediately, but would return the team to Dallas if no purchase occurred by 1975.
After the deal was signed, the team was renamed the San Antonio Gunslingers(4). However, before they even played a game, the name was changed to Spurs. The team’s primary colors were changed from the red, white, and blue of the Chaparrals to the now-familiar black, silver and white motif of the Spurs, with the branding taking effect for the 1973 – 74 season(5). In their first game at HemiFair Arena, the Spurs lost to the San Diego Conquistadors despite attracting a crowd of 6,000 fans. A smothering defense was the team’s trademark, as they held opponents to less than 100 points in an ABA-record 49 games. The early Spurs were led by ABA veteran James Silas, and the team grew stronger by acquiring Swen Nater (who would go on to win the Rookie of the Year award) and George Gervin from the Virgina Squires in January. The ABA tried to halt the Gervin deal, claiming it was detrimental to the league; however, a judge ruled in the Spurs’ favor and Gervin made his Spurs debut on February 7th, 1974. The Spurs finished their inaugural season under that banner with a 45 – 39 record, good for third place in the Western Division. In the playoffs, the team was defeated by the Indiana Pacers in seven games in the first round. San Antonio embraced the Spurs with open arms; the Spurs drew 6,303 fans per game, surpassing the Chaparrals’ entire total attendance in only 18 games. Drossos, Schaefer and McCombs knew a runaway hit when they saw it. After only one year, they exercised their option to tear up the lease agreement, buy the franchise outright and keep the team in San Antonio for good(6).
The team quickly made themselves at home at HemisFair Arena, playing to increasingly large and raucous crowds. Despite a respectable 17 – 10 start during the 1974 – 75 season, Coach Tom Nissalke was fired as the team’s ownership became tired of the Spurs’ slow playing style. He was replaced by Bob Bass, who said “It is my belief that you cannot throw a set offense at another professional team for 48 minutes. You’ve got to let them play some schoolyard basketball.” Gervin and Silas took that style to heart, as the Spurs became an exciting fast-break team. The team finished the season with a 51 – 33 record and finished in second place in the West. In the playoffs, the Spurs fell to the Pacers in six games(7).
Even though playoff success would elude the team before the merger, the Spurs had suddenly found themselves among the best teams in the ABA. Moreover, their gaudy attendance figures made them very attractive to the NBA, even though San Antonio, then as now, was a medium-sized market. Although San Antonio proper had over 650,000 people at the time (and has since grown to become the seventh-largest city in the United States), the surrounding suburban and rural areas have never been much larger than the city itself. In June 1976, the ABA-NBA merger took place, moving San Antonio’s sole professional sports franchise into a new league. The Spurs, the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers and the New York Nets joined the NBA for the 1976 – 77 season. The Spurs and the other three ABA teams added in the merger agreed to pay the owners of two other strong ABA teams that folded instead of joining the NBA. John Y. Brown, Jr., the owner of the Kentucky Colonels, received $3 million, which he used to purchase the NBA’s Buffalo Braves and later the Boston Celtics, after selling star guard Louis Dampier to the Spurs. The owners of the Spirits of St. Louis received a portion of all television profits during their NBA tenure, which amounted to approximately one-seventh of the Spurs’ television profit every year. This agreement placed particular financial pressure on the Spurs and the other surviving former ABA teams(8). In 2014, 38 years after the completion of the merger, the Spirits’ owners reached an agreement with the NBA to end the perpetual payments and take a lump sum of $500 million instead(9).
No comments:
Post a Comment